Did you know?

There are so many awesome, cool facts about outer space... I overheard one preschooler ask his mom today, "Mom, did you know that the sun is actually a star? And did you know that the earth spins at 1,000 mph..... and he kept coming up with more facts!
I found this fantastic book on Amazon for a reasonable price and we've been reading it during circle times; the pictures are beautiful and the facts are simple and easy to understand. Ask your children some questions and they'll probably know the answer...or they may even quiz you about some facts! 

This guy looked through every single page of this book during choice time. He was hooked!!

Blast off!

Into outer space we go.... the children were pretending to be astronauts and blasting off into space with our airplane simulator. I even told them that astronauts actually lay on their backs in the rocket ship, and so they followed suit! Too bad we don't have access to pretend play space suits!! 

BLAST OFF!!

Lava land or bubble gum party?

Which of these activities would you choose? These were several of the (child created) options available during choice time today. There was one group in the house area preparing for a bubble gum party and another small group building a lava land....

The beginning of lava land....

Ms. Larisa found a fabric tent in the closet
that worked perfect to cover the entire
lava land and make it super dark, per their request.

And here is the bubble gum party preparation.
These gals should go into the catering
business because they set out quite the feast!

And we finally got to eat!! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

To say that the children were excited about sharing and opening Valentine's would be an understatement! There were squeals of delight and a nervous energy as the children pulled out and looked at their Valentine's. They were thrilled!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY TO YOU!

Re-telling stories

One of the reasons I chose the book, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear is because of the sequence of the story; it's one children can re-tell multiple times and remember the sequence. We read the story once during circle and then the next day retold it with picture cards; the children helped place them on the flannel board...then, some children re-told it again during choice time. I love to see how books come alive for children!!

Putting the cards in sequence.

We did it - team effort! 

Reading about tornadoes!

Reading with a friend! 

Strawberries and more!

The MWF class was quite busy on Wednesday. Painting strawberries at the easel, building traps and other contraptions in the block area, writing letters on the white board and making a variety of tasty strawberry treats with play-dough.....

The guy inside of the easel trapped himself in
there on purpose; he was giving instructions
to his two buddies on what blocks to bring
next. He was proud to know that he was
"trapped" inside for 1 whole hour! 

Another view of the easel trapping......

Writing letters and numbers

The gal in blue is a little entrepreneur in the making...
she was selling her strawberry delicacies for .25 cents a piece!! 

The BIG HUNGRY Bear!

The story pictured below is a children's classic and loved by all. We have a board book of this story in our preschool library; several children are usually "reading" it; retelling the story almost everyday, so I decided we needed to spend an entire week with this great book. The story is simple but there are great concepts that can be emphasized; the vocabulary in the book is also great - words like: ripe, tromp, forest, disguised are wonderful for children to learn. After reading the BIG BOOK during circle today, I suggested the children might want to build a structure to keep the bear away from the strawberry....they took my suggestion seriously and got right to work!

"Hiding the strawberry."

Can't see the strawberries? They are hidden
under all of those blocks....they were
actually orange cones. Very creative. 

The children were very proud of their
structure. Ms. Morgan helped too....

Girls in the block area!

I love to see both girls and boys building in the block area. It is super cool to see how creative they can be! The conversation and role playing was occurring and it was fun to set back and see how they went about their play!

It started out with 3 gals and a few structures....

And then, more children joined in
and more structures were built.
And some problem solving was practiced
as we had multiple ideas and opinions.

Pretend play

I really enjoy watching children and how they perceive their world and use pretend play as an outlet for what they observe. Today, one gal gathered some books, a stuffed animal, bowls and a few other things and set up her space in the library area. She sat in the tub holding a book (as she has seen the teacher's do during group times) and started "reading." I had to be careful not to interrupt this play because she stopped when she noticed I was watching her; I had to be inconspicuous as I took a few pictures. She did tell me she was pretending to be a teacher.

And then a little bit later, more children joined in on the action......We had doctors and moms taking care of babies, etc....

Children often creatively use the library
for so much more than looking at books.

Look closely at the middle bookshelf. There
are all kinds of things being stored there.

More about Kansas....

For art on Tuesday, the children made sunflowers and today (Thu), the children got to choose between a box turtle or buffalo picture. They cut strips of paper and glued them on their animal. They were very focused on completing this task. It was neat to watch them work at it. 

Busy making bright yellow sunflowers on Tuesday!